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Just In Time...'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #1012 | 3.767 | 3.767 |
| Audio | #1557 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
| Artwork | #2985 | 3.433 | 3.433 |
| Creativity | #5705 | 3.017 | 3.017 |
| Narrative | #7674 | 1.900 | 1.900 |
Ranked from 60 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The cube has a timer on its life that counts down to zero, but theres ways to add more time to its life
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
Death sound - Robtop Games
Background Monochrome Version (Modified by me) - Hakan Kaçar from Vecteezy
Squash and Stretch script - Raycastly
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Asterisk
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Comments
I like this game. For some reason the hardest level in the whole game for me is level 9 which took me like 33 attempts.
There are usually multiple ways of finishing a level, but level 9's bottom path was not really possible (tricked a lot of people). TSYM! Glad you liked it.
As a certified 2D platformer enjoyer this game was so much fun. The levels were tight but fair although very difficult ,as you explained. I would suggest adding an explanation for the red zones, it took me a while to realize time moved faster in them (although maybe I missed it)
I tried to use as little text to make players understand the features as possible. thats why the timer becomes red when you enter the zone. Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it.
This game was so much fun!!! I love 2D platformers! You really nailed the overall aesthetic and the music. As for the platforming, the mechanics were really good and you could really start going fast once you learned. There were also some levels with multiple ways to beat them and I really appreciated that. I enjoyed getting a fast time on the levels as well. One minor improvement is adding controller support. Maybe its just me, but I don’t enjoy playing platformers on a keyboard as much. I feel like a controller would be a lot more comfortable. But this is just a game jam, so thats fine. Great work!
Glad you liked it so much!! I actually thought about adding controller support, cuz I had a controller, but most people would play on keyboard anyways so I scrapped it
Very fun platformer, that seems to follow in the tradition of some other 'rage' games.
I love the visuals and the lighting. It's very slippery for such a precise game, but I assume that's what you're going for.
I got up to level 10, before stopping.
Overall very good!
Thanks! I tried my best to make it precise but the squash and stretch of the character really complemented the slipperyness. The slipperyness is also to make the character a bit more fluid.
Interestingly this is the first platformer race I've seen so far. I appreciate the coyote time and input buffering. Very nice.
A few notes on what could be improved:
- The timer doesn't kill you as soon as it hits zero. The rest of the second has to elapse before you die.
- It'd be nice if the timer didn't start until my first input
I'm also surprised by how little platformer with timers got made lol. Thanks for the feedback! As for the potential improvements:
- the timer initially had a millisecond part (but I scrapped it because it looked jittery) but I'm planning on adding it back somehow
- That was also my plan but I didn't get around to implementing it lol
I already had played through it like twice during the jam's submission period but i still had fun playing through it again for the rating period !
It's a pretty hard game i'd say, it has some finicky stuff you can do to make your life easier during platforming (tapping the opposite direction to stop your momentum, lining up walls jumps right since even tapping jump makes you go pretty high)
Some of the little time bonus pickups felt pretty useless for the effort it takes to get them, most of the time, they don't give enough time to really be worth risking over just trying to go through the level as fast as possible 🤔
But that's just nitpicks, the movement is great, the style of the game looks really clean (even while being minimalist!) (i like the glowy lights✨) and overall it's a fun short-and-sweet difficult platformer ^v^
Reached and finished the 12th level after 10-15 minutes of tryharding ! Reached the exit as the countdown ticked down to 0:00 so i can confidently say that i was... Just in time. (i'm sorry this is a really bad pun 😭)
I liked it ! Awesome work 💜
Don't worry, that windscreen in each level only says "just in time" when you complete under 6 second for that exact pun T-T. The bonus time boosts are most of the time a fake in order for you to try out different ways of beating the same level. (Except in some levels like 12 it's necessary (the +30s pickup gives you a net +10s extra when you come back)) Thanks so much for the feedback! I'm planning on improving the movement scripts after the jam ends.
Copying my comments from the game page. Great job on this Asterisk, I had a lot of fun!
In terms of improvements, I would probably gradually scale up the difficulty, right now the jump between Levels 1-3 is pretty extreme. And since this is a game for experienced platformer players, I would recommend making the first few levels a little hard to help with that >:)
I also noticed that holding space bar allows you to slide up walls, which was a cool feature but the physics of it felt a little finicky at times. Maybe clamping the speed when sliding would help make that more predictable.
Other than that, I'm loving the game!
The levels 1 and 2 were basically there to tell the inputs to whoever was too impatient to read the description lol. The climbing feature was also part of the point of existence for level 2 (to teach how to use climbing). The speed while climbing is actually clamped already haha.
visuals are good. It's challenging I couldn't get past level 6. I love it!
TSYM!
I liked the levels, it felt like a little puzzle to figure out what route to take. I would like the movement more if the character stopped moving up when you let go of the jump button (so that you can precisely control the jump height)
Precise jump was in mind but not in scope for the jam. Thanks for being the ONE person who understands why the routes are there T-T. Glad you liked it!
Nice game! I like how wall climbing makes you launch yourself to gain momentum. Difficulty and aesthetic reminds me of celeste and geometry dash. Its probably just me but the rotating background is a bit distracting. Maybe it could rotate slower. Overall, excellent work!
Thanks! I should probably make it a setting if i develop this game further. Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it
Very fun, it was challenging but it didnt feel unfair which kept me going for just 1 more attempt every time until i beat it.
Thank you!! This game is meant to be played similar to geometry dash, to keep trying until success because its possible. (Hence theres no deathscreen, the death sound is similar to GD, the levels have difficulty colors) Would love to hear your thoughts on what to improve after the jam
Challenging but fair which is such a hard balance in a jam, loved the little touches like the lighting, the way the player stretches and moves when moving and jumping, super cool.
Thanks! A lot of people think its kind of unforgiving in hitbox, even though I made the spike hitboxes 0.9x the size of the sprite lol. Would love to hear your thoughts on what to improve
This game is so simple but so good
Your simple idea gose a super long way.
Add more levels and this game could be played for hours
TSYM! Glad you liked it!
Your welcome
Cool game! I reached level 9, loved the aesthetic.
Some things you can improve:
Thanks for the feedback! I'll keep in mind 1 and 2, although 3 is a fun little bug that i kept intentionally.
gave you 5 star every thing is good i liked the smoothless of the game play ! loved the level 3 as its hard .
Thanks! Would love to hear your thoughts on what to improve
I think the hitboxes of the red squares could've been a bit more forgiving because some points are a bit frustrating. For the rest I really like the movement of this game, it has good speedrun potential. Perhaps making it a bit easier to clear but add medals for faster times could satisfy both hardcore and more casual players.
The medals were on my "might add" list too. I'm interested in developing this game further after the jam, and also making it clearer which path is intended, etc are probably getting resolved pretty soon. Thanks for the feedback!
i rage quit. too many obstacles too quickly
Sorry! Hope you play it again later. I tried to show progression in the game too quickly lol
Level 7 has me beat (skill issue), but the game feels great and the music fits great!
Thank you so much!! I reeeaally need to fix the difficulty T-T no one's beating it lol
One thing I have to give you: this game is HARD. Like, I've played hard platformers myself, but still I can't make my way past lvl 8. I don't wanna be that guy who complains about every small detail, but I feel like the movement here is REALLY slippery for a precision platformer, like you were i am assuming going for. I'd recommend studying up on platformer movement and how things like air time and snappy movement affect your game's feel.
The difficulty isn't that fair cuz it wasn't intended. I had to make something other than new features (i can only make so many being late to the jam) in order to not make every level feel the same. Its kind of like geometry dash in difficulty. Hard, takes a lot of attempts but its all possible
Edit: Level 8 is actually on par with levels 5 - 7 IMO, its just that the red zone isnt the intended path and instead a fake (still possible to win thru) A lot of the levels have multiple ways of beating them
I Understand balancing a platformer can be really challenging. Some quick tips for this game would be to reduce the movement smoothing and make it snappier so the player has more control over it. Many a time my player would continue to move forward even when I let go of the buttons, leading to some unfair deaths. I'd highly recommend researching this topic; it can be really interesting!
Some of those bugs are because of my poor programming skills lol. I am planing to make the controller better post-jam. If you're interested, comeback to this game after about a month, Ill hopefully add quite a lot more features by then!
Played 4 level then ragequitted. Still very polish tho, I wouldnt take point off just cuz of skill issue.
trust me when i say this, i tried to make it as easy as i could without it feeling like the same level over and over again. Glad you liked it though, thanks!